Saturday, August 31, 2013

Best you ever ate.

This sign does not lie.
I write this from the land of hamburgers - yes, none other than the lovely U.S. of A.

And yet I still can't forget this place. Why?

Witness it in all its juicy, foodful glory.
I don't think I have to add much more to that.

This beauty here - is the Baked Apple Hamburger. This tag team is so divine, I can't even describe how epic it was. You'll just have to taste it yourself. They've got a fair selection of different burgers (weekly special!! I'm a sucker for limited time edition stuff) as well as a decent range of non-Japanese beers, for those interested.

You can even check out their Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/pantrycoyote

Pantry Coyote - I can't wait to see you again.

Lotus flowers in the park.

Which way to go?
At some point during the midst of rainy season in Japan, I ventured to the nearby park to finally catch the lotus flowers in bloom.

I had previously seen the flowers in season for two summers in a row - passing by them everyday during my commute on the Chiba Urban Monorail (a morning treat, as the flowers blossom in the morning!), and yet I failed to actually go see them up close. So I decided that before leaving Chiba, I absolutely needed to take a trip to the park.

Rise and shine crowd of photographers.
Finally, I managed to get up and out early enough to take a brief stroll through the park with friends before heading to work! I wish I did it earlier and more often - because of quirky weather during the days preceding my visit, the flowers were on their last leg :(

Bottom right photo records the number of flowers bloomed since the end of May.
As you can see, there was a dramatic drop in the number of flowers from the day before (200!!)...but by the looks of it, I'd missed peak by a good 10 days. Still, it was fantastic to see the flowers up close and personal.

And here's a random piece of trivia - these lotus flowers are the base for Chiba City's mascot character, Chihana-chan.

Guest appearance by the Chiba Urban Monorail's newest addition, the Urban Flyer, in the distance!
The Chiba Urban Monorail drops off right in front of the park at the station of the same name ("Chiba Koen" Station) - which is how I got there that day, since it was directly on my way to work. It's also a short 10-15 minute walk from Chiba Station.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Makuhari Dokidoki Flea Market

I can't remember how it started, but during this year's Golden Week, one of my best buddies and I decided that we wanted check out the annual Makuhari Dokidoki Flea Market.

We drove as we had our usual obligatory trip to Costco afterwards - so we gave ourselves an extra time to get there at opening time, in case we ran into the epic traffic jams that apparently form around around Makuhari Messe because of this event.

Tickets available at the door for 600 yen!
In fact, there was no traffic whatsoever. We arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule, so we stopped by one of the ticket booths located right at the escalators leading from the parking lot to the Messe and purchased tickets for ourselves and our lovely kohai who would be joining us later on.

...but then, we got absorbed into the human traffic jam waiting at the walkway leading into the Messe.

Sea of people waiting to get into the flea market.
They didn't let us in until exactly 10am...but then it was shopping showdown time!!

For the record, there were two more halls of the same size...so much flea market to be had! (taken around 10am)
I hadn't been to a flea market in ages, but I don't think any of us were prepared for how hard core this flea market was.

After a bit of scouting, we decided to fill our stomachs before really tackling the shopping:

International food corner! There were also rows of booths with foods from different areas of Japan.

Toppogi from the Korean place!



The flea market in full swing.
A couple hours later, the crowd had really gathered (no worries - we'd done a fair share of shopping too!). This photo is of the same area pictured 3 photos above...crazy!

The flea market was split up into different areas - for example, an area dedicated to luxury brands, and another dedicated to vendors selling out of the back of their car. My favorite area was by far the "artist's alley" of the flea market.

"This pug sticker is cute...but so is this one! う〜ん迷う"
Matcha green tea and rich chocolate gelatos!
Finally, we were shopped out - so we concluded on a sweet note with some delicious gelatos! Mmm.

And my personal haul from the flea market:

"What a haul, what a haul!" - does anyone know what anime that's from?
(front left) 3 postcards from an artist - 200 yen apiece (I think?)
(front right) 2 mini stickers from an artist - 150 yen apiece (and I got one for free!)
(bottom) Bright red kimono under robe - 1000 yen
(top) Sculptures (owl in a tree, and person? holding an onigiri) 800 yen apiece

ALICE.
By far my greatest discovery of the day - this gigantic stuff Alice doll! I'd seen a bunch of merchandise from this series a couple years ago - all sorts of Disney characters were considerably "simplified" (and I have a thing for characters with dot eyes).

I was so excited when I found Alice that I immediately ran over to the sellers and asked them how much - they looked at me like I was crazy (I guess they weren't expecting to sell it?) and said "er...100 yen?"

SCORE. :)

Romantic pigs and other fun with food (and drink).

Today I'd like to present a jumble of photos representing my food adventures in Chiba. Without further ado:


Entry #1: "Romantic pig lab" roast ham. Okay, so I made up a translation for the "koisuru" part on my own. This brand name floored me when I first saw it. A colleague in a different department gave this to me as thanks for helping out with some translation work. The meat was incredibly high quality, and apparently really expensive too (somewhere around $1.50-2.00 per slice of ham?). Apparently it's still an up-and-coming brand, but there may come a day when you spot it in the store!


Entry #2: Onion ice cream. I kid you not. Shirako, a little town on the eastern coast of Chiba, is a huge producer of onions...so in typical Japanese branding fashion, I suppose they decided to make this outrageously flavored ice cream. It did not betray...it tasted like sour cream and onion flavoring mixed with vanilla ice cream. Not for the weak of heart.


Entry #3: Soy sauce-flavored cider. The "BO-SO TV" logo signifies that it was created for the local variety show of the same name. A friend gave me a heads-up about it, and then I found it being sold at the convenience store at my work. Not too bad, not that great either - I suppose it tasted like a weak caramel-flavored soda?


Entry #4: Hijiki ice cream. Previously shown in the post here, this is hijiki (brownish-blackish colored seaweed) flavored ice cream. I love hijiki and I love ice cream, but we just weren't meant to be...

Perhaps the oddest combination I've encountered aside from onion...and natto (although that was of course in the neighboring prefecture of Ibaraki).


Entry #5: Sweet potato ice cream. Certainly not as strange as the previous entries, I thought sweet potato was a unique flavor for ice cream nonetheless. Good stuff. Apparently Chiba is the largest national producer of sweet potato in Japan - it produces even more thank Kagoshima, the present-day Satsuma region (and sweet potato in Japanese is satsumaimo)!


Entry #6: Bamboo shoot wine. Although it sounds crazy, it tastes just as it appears - like good ol' white wine! Or perhaps I am not enough of a wine connoisseur to tell the difference? This was again in exchange for some translation work - brought back from the Chiba's little mountain town of Otaki.


Entry #7: I hail from the world's capital of hamburgers...but that did not prepare me for this monster - a 6 full-size burger menace. You can experience "leaning tower of burgers" (my personal pet name for this) at Village Vanguard in Chiba City, previously reviewed here.


Entry #8: Sky Anpan. Anpan is Japanese sweet bread, most commonly filled with red bean paste. This product was developed by Narita (home to the international airport of the same name) - I believe it's mainly sold at stores within the city itself. I have yet to actually find it at the airport, but I bought this particular one at the Lawson convenience store near my work. This anpan is filled with sweet potato paste (again with Chiba sweet potatoes!)...and was quite tasty.


Entry #9: Tasty local products. Last but not least...these examples are tamest of the entire post, but I just wanted to remind myself of all the yummy snacks I got at work - usually complements of visitors, or colleagues who brought something back from business trips around the prefecture. Inside the white paper bag is biwa - or a fruit named loquat that I didn't even know existed until I moved to Japan. It tastes like nothing else I've had - but generally it has very low-key sweetness with perhaps a texture a bit firmer than a peach? And pictured in the cup to the upper left is none other than Chiba-grown peanuts! They were covered with some sort of sweet coating - can't remember anything but that they were delicious, because they were gone in no time.

What do you think? Have you run into any interesting foods in Chiba before?

Monday, August 26, 2013

Once every 60 years: the Honkaicho.

Time travel back to 3 months ago.

Bridge of fishing boats!
I headed back down to my 2nd hometown, Kamogawa, for the Honkaicho - to make a complex introduction short - a local festival held once every 60 years.

The main point is that can only go to the shrine located on a tiny island off of Kamogawa's coast during this festival (pictured in the far right of the above photo).

Apparently back in the day these boats were actually used to cross over to the island.
To be quite honest, I've forgotten a good amount of background info on the festival. You can find a slightly longer description here though.

Point is, it was amazing to be there for such a momentous occasion. And apparently much of the townspeople (and other people from the surrounding areas) felt the same way too, looking at the photo below. This is by far the largest crowd I've seen in Kamogawa, and I am unsure I will ever see one of its size again.

Mayor being interviewed by the media (somewhere around the center-right?) 
Braving the epic queue.
It was still relatively early in the day, but an acquaintance was kind enough to let me and my friend know that the line to get into the shrine was growing by the minute! It stretched all around the pier.

Thankfully, I'd bought some snacks for the wait.
As I was strolling around the festival, I had run into another acquaintance (perhaps how I most enjoy such events - seeing how many friends/acquaintances I can run into) - a warm couple who run my favorite sushi place in the city. I bought this, a dish I think they especially thought up for the day! It was roll sushi with sangayaki (fried minced fish burger?) inside. Noms.

But I also got to enjoy some lovely scenery during the wait (despite the excruciating heat):

Satisfying my usual obsession for signs.
Kamogawa from an angle I may never have the chance to capture again!
Entry to the shrine.
And so finally, after a 3 hour wait...we were almost there - the elusive Itsukushima Shrine (not to be confused with the one in Hiroshima).

Tiny main hall.
Photos weren't allowed within the main hall itself, so we'll just have to make due with this. The sacred sculpture that is only viewable to shrine visitors during the Honkaicho was displayed at the alter.

Mission complete!
Since we'd accomplished our main goal - getting to the shrine - we set off for a bit more adventure. Who knows if we'd be able to withstand the 3 hour wait to get to the shrine in another 60 years (or if we'd even be around to take the chance in the first place).

...and for the record, the wait had apparently swelled to 5 hours by the time we left the shrine. Eep.

Katsugi-yatai between the vivid fishing boat banners!
After that, we managed to witness the festivities - basically a more extravagant affair than the annual Godosai in September. "Extravagant" in that the festival participants paraded up and down the pier without taking any or very few breaks.

And my favorite - the mikoshi! (although this is a different one than the one I usually help carry).
After all that excitement, finally my friend and I were starved and exhausted. We headed over to our mutual love, the spectacular Rosso Bianco! (Again I think I've potstd about this multiple times, but just in case here is a past post with some content about Rosso.)

Hamburger steak topped with bamboo shoots! Mmmmmm.
As a special treat, cheese cake and coffee jelly - on the house!
 DROOL. Oh Rosso, how I miss thee already!